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The Public Servants Association (PSA) has called on the Information Regulator of South Africa to suspend a directive compelling employees to return to its offices at Woodmead in Johannesburg despite the regulator being issued with a prohibition notice by the department of employment & labour. The Federation of Unions of South Africa affiliate said by forcing employees back into a workplace under prohibition, the regulator is displaying a flagrant disregard for occupational health and safety enforcement measures. A prohibition notice halts specific activities, equipment use or building occupancy with immediate effect due to a life-threatening danger or serious safety violation. Prohibition notices essentially mean that no work may take place on the premises where the notice was served. The Information Regulator is an independent statutory body whose mission is to regulate the processing of personal information and the promotion of access to information, among others. Reuben Maleka, GM of the PSA, said the union, which represents more than 240,000 public servants, condemned the regulator’s “reckless and irrational decision” to compel its staff to return to their posts despite the unresolved prohibition notice. “The union formally requested that the regulator should suspend a return-to-office directive until clarity was provided on the prohibition notice and commitments made to employees regarding relocation were honoured,” Maleka said. “This request was summarily rejected without any legal justification or evidence that the prohibition notice has been revoked or complied with. The prohibition notice explicitly states that revocation will only be considered once an inspector is satisfied that the threat has been eliminated or substantially reduced.” He accused the regulator of relying on its own “unilateral claim of compliance, disregarding the statutory authority of the [employment & labour department]. Reporting remedial work is not equivalent to the department exercising its powers to revoke or amend a prohibition notice”. Maleka said by forcing employees back into a workplace under prohibition, the regulator was displaying a flagrant disregard for occupational health and safety enforcement measures. “This reckless conduct undermines the purpose of statutory protections and places employees directly in harm’s way,” he said. The union demanded the immediate suspension of the return-to-office directive until the employment & labour department had “formally clarified the status of the prohibition notice”, adding it would pursue all available legal remedies should the regulator persist “in this unlawful course of action”. The regulator has been approached for comment, which will be added once received.
